Joseph Talluto - Taking It Back

Sarah smiled and went back into the building to get things prepared. I walked around to the side of the building and found Charlie waiting for me.

“Did you tell her?” he asked

“No. Did you tell Rebecca?” I retorted.

“Are you kidding? She’d flip,” Charlie responded.

“Right. Well, we’d better get moving if we want to have even the slightest chance of living through tomorrow,” I said, adjusting the rifle strap.

“We’re crazy, you know that?” Charlie fell in step next to me.

“Can’t be sane in this world.”

“Amen.”

I woke up smelling like laundry detergent and completely surrounded by the dead. Ordinarily, this would be cause for some concern, especially the part about the laundry detergent, but since I had planned for this to happen, I wasn’t too upset about it.

Last night, Charlie and I had met with Sheriff Harlan and went over an idea I had about dealing with the dead. I figured they were going to hit the wall no matter what since the zombies could easily smell the humans inside the perimeter. But that didn’t mean we had to just let them hammer away until they eventually weakened the barrier and made their way in. What I proposed was to hit them from behind and keep the horde occupied on two fronts, thinning their attack line and keeping them from seriously concentrating their efforts.

I was under no illusions. We had a thin chance at best and if we managed to get through this, I personally would be amazed.

I idly wondered what Charlie was thinking about the plan as he waited for the signal in his container. We were holed up about a quarter mile to the north of the fence and we decided to split up in case the Z’s figured out that there was a snack in one of the containers. Charlie was about fifty yards to the west in a light blue container. Mine was red and we had to flip a coin to see who would be getting the blue one. I lost. We both had carried bags of laundry detergent to mask our scents as we waited for the horde to pass. I had wet down the door of the container with water from my bottle and tossed handfuls of the detergent on the door.

As far as I knew, the detergent had worked. No one had come pounding on the door in the night and I had awakened a couple of times to the sound of many shuffling feet sliding by, but as long as the door held, I was actually quite safe. Of course when I opened the door to get into my firing position I could be given a hearty good morning chomp by a lingering ghoul, but those were chances I was willing to take.

I had a lot of time to think and found my thoughts drifting to those things that I usually thought about in quiet times. I thought about Jake and idly wondered how he was doing, knowing he was safe with Nate. I worried about his future and mentally started his training and how he would deal with the world he was going to inherit. I thought about his mother and felt a pang of guilt that quickly passed. Ellie would not want me to sit around and mope no more than I would want her to if I had been the one to go. These thoughts naturally led to Sarah and the hope I would see her again. I figured she would be okay and I winced in the darkness about what she was going to do when she found out what I was up to this morning. I gave Sheriff Tom that job and I know he was not looking forward to talking to both Sarah and Rebecca.

I thought about where we were going to go to from here, what the overall plan was. In a way I felt like I needed to move quickly, that if I didn’t have something set up soon everything I had worked for and people had died for would unravel. I could just hang it all up and disappear with Jake and take our chances with the dead world, but that would be selfish. Jake didn’t ask to be born into this mess and it was my duty as a father to do what I could to make sure he survived. I made a mental promise to him that I was not going to roam for a long time and just spend my time making the community we lived in as good as it could be. For the moment, it was the best I could do.

The radio on my belt crackled and Charlie’s voice came softly over the airwave.

“Hey, John?”

I fumbled with the radio in the dark, having a hard time getting it off my belt, and bumping my elbow on the side of the container. I cringed at the sound and hoped like hell no zombies heard it. “Hey, Charlie.” I replied just as softly, my words echoing slightly in the dark container. “Good morning.”

“Has the Sheriff called you yet?” Charlie seemed anxious.

“Not yet, why?”

“I think the Z’s know I’m in here.”

“Really? How do you know?” I thought it illogical for Charlie to be talking to me if he thought zombies were within earshot of his hidey-hole.

“Something keeps moving back and forth outside the container and I keep hearing sounds like digging.” Charlie’s voice seemed strained and I could only imagine what he was thinking. Being trapped inside a metal box while the dead waited for you was like already being buried. You had nowhere to go and death was outside the door. Better to put a bullet in your own head than starve to death or be eaten by zombies.

“Hang tight.” I tried to sound reassuring. “I’ll let you know when I get the signal to come out and start the festivities, whether or not you have anything to worry about.”

“Okay. Make it soon, alright? The digging started again and it’s driving me nuts.”

“Done,” I said, replacing the radio on my belt. If my watch was right, we should have some information soon.

Ten minutes later, the radio crackled again. “Talon?” Sheriff Harlan’s voice came through. “You still there, you crazy bastard?”

I brought the radio up, more careful not to make noise this time. “Yep. Ready when you are.” I adjusted my gear in the dark. “How’s it look out there?”

“Well, I guess we have ourselves a regular dust up, no question about it. We got the people laying low like you said and nobody is shooting until I give the signal.”

That was part of the plan. The zombies could smell the living, but if they didn’t see them they would not attack in earnest. If we could keep them from massing at a single point, the fence stood a better chance of holding them off. But we needed to keep them away from the fence. Eventually they were going to try and force their way in, but not right now if I could help it.

I hit the send button. “How’s the area around me?” I was ready to get out and get to work.

“Just fine, the worst has passed and they are now spreading out along the fence,” the sheriff reported.

“Any activity around the blue container?” I asked. “Charlie said he was hearing digging sounds.”

“Nothing on this side. His door is clear.”

“Okay, thanks. I’m heading out.” I wondered what Charlie had heard.

“Hey, John?” the radio started again.

“Yeah, Tom?”

“I was told to give you a message.”

“Was it from a smallish, green-eyed woman with a gun?”

“Yep. Consider it sent. Harlan out.”

I chuckled in the dark. Sarah was pissed and I really couldn’t blame her. I imagine Charlie was going to get an earful as well if we lived through this.

I stepped up to the door and unlocked the chain I had wrapped around the door poles on the inside of the container. Normally these containers had all the locking mechanisms on the outside, but since I was in and wanted to keep things out, it presented a small problem. Fortunately, we were able to secure the doors and I opened one cautiously and looked out. There was no one in front of me and trusting to Harlan’s assessment of the situation, I assumed there was no one where I couldn’t see them.

I stepped out into the open and pulled out the small stepladder I had brought with me to the container. Charlie had one as well and I used it to quickly get up on the container. The ladder was little more than four feet tall, but it got me on top, which was where I needed to be. I hauled up a small duffle bag, which contained my ammunition, and slowly walked to the end of the container.